Master Shigeru Egami deepened with passion within the karate he learnt from
Master Gichin Funakoshi. During his search for effectivity he doubts his techniques.
To resolve this problem he undertakes a personal research and confronts a great
number of obstacles, among others, sicknesses that get more and more severe
as he gets beyond forty years old.

Master
Shigeru Egami's way of karate results in a method of peace, heiho. Sure his
distancing is personal, but it most evidently represents one of the directions
that the okinawan karate evolved on the main islands of Japan. Actually, as
Master Egami wrote, as heiho ended up defining his karate he submerges his roots
in ancient Japanese tradition.

Shigeru
Egami trained many years under the direction of Gichin Funakoshi. He received
counsel and teaching directly from him in his karate development. Actually he
clearly states that he was continuing the way laid out by his master. Why did
he then torment himself so much while reconstructing his karate? If the Master's
transmission was effective, he would be able to counsel him and lecture him,
even in his elder years. Master Funakoshi died in 1957 when Master Shigeru Egami
was 45 years old. Having started karate at the age of 18, Master Egami knew
Master Gichin Funakoshi for 27 years. Being one of the most important disciples
he could have received practical indications that would have given him the necessary
perspective for the future evolution of karate from that point on. Now, even
with his knowledge and his possibilities, he had to doubt and start again the
construction of his karate; we can consequently believe that the knowledge he
obtained from traditional karate were not that important because, generally,
in the transmission of a combat art there exist indications for the evolution
of a person. A beginner progresses, in time he receives evolutive indications
from the master and after ten or twenty years of exercise these help him/her
find an orientation that will direct his practice in the next ten or twenty
years. However, in the course of his research Egami abandons the exercise of
the makiwara, an inseparable element in karate training and goes as far as condemning
its very existence; he furthermore, audaciously transforms the techniques he
had learnt until that moment in time. What does this mean? With respect to makiwara
training, there are two possible hypotheses:

1)
For true karate or superior level karate, as Egami considered his karate,
makiwara exercise is not only useless but also harmful. It stops technical
progress and has a pernicious effect on the health. It is therefore a criticism
on the ancient Okinawan karate methods based on the discovery of a superior
method.

2)
Master Egami did not learn the real use of the makiwara because he did not
understand the correct use of it. If we admit this hypothesis, Gichin Funakoshi
did not teach his students how to exercise correctly on the makiwara. This
makes us suppose that on Okinawa makiwara training methodology that exists,
and is transmitted, can obtain a more positive result than the one that Egami
obtained, but this method has not been introduced in Japan.

In
any case, based on the idea of heiho, Shigeru Egami creates a karate that is
completely different from the one practiced on Okinawa. The concept of heiho
is one of the forms resulting from the Japanese Martial Arts, where, after reaching
the end within the search for combat effectivity, the final objective passes
from death to life. This notion is close to that of budo, that has its roots
in the Japanese warrior martial arts. Heiho as well as budo, is not a simple
combat art, nor a direct reformulation of the ancient warrior practice, one
and the other point towards the development of men/women through the practice
of martial arts.

Even
though budo as a concept existed before the Meiji period (starting in 1868),
the meaning was considerably different from the one we understand today. Nowadays
the notion of budo we use appeared directly linked to the foundations of judo
and later kendo based on the old forms of jujutsu and kenjutsu. It is actually
a modern concept.

The
concept of heiho appeared quite a bit earlier in Japanese warrior's history,
but it was not as elaborated as the budo concept within the practice of modern
martial arts, it was a concept on the periphery of the martial practice, as
a possible sublimation of the warrior arts.

The
idea of a martial art developed in Japan in the following stages: how to win
destroying the opponent, how to win using less force, how to win without killing
the opponent, how to win without hurting the opponent, how to avoid war and,
finally, how to establish peace. Some warriors in the Edo period (1603-1867)
included this idea in the elaboration of their combat arts but it was not widely
extended and without outward expression it permeates the warrior martial art
ideology.

We
can see the emergence of heiho and budo within the points of view of the sword
masters in the XVII century. For example, Miyamoto Musashi faced more than seventy
duels to death during his youth and killed most of his opponents. The combats
in the last years of his life are little known. Musashi at this point controls
his opponents without giving them a blow. He attained a level where he could
either immobilize or reject his opponent without touching them. These were not
exercises with close students, rather opponents that were trying to give him
a mortal slash. When an opponent loses under these conditions, without receiving
a blow, he is subjected to a profound reflexion upon his technique, his being.
It is a very important discovery in the art of the sword, because, instead of
killing, the sword becomes a medium that can make a being search for the meaning
of life. This idea is present in the notion of heiho and it deeply impregnates
the martial art conceptions of the Edo period Japanese warriors (bujutsu).

To
beat an opponent without giving a blow is the reference model that is searched
for in kendo with the combat through kizeme (offensive through ki). In kendo,
all technical learning and the physical exercises are considered methods to
attain a combat at this level. The sportive practice of combat is also considered
a step along this long training process.

So,
both notions, budo and heiho, are anchored deeply in the traditional Japanese
warrior culture; it is not part of the Okinawan culture whose cultural formation
is quite different from the Japanese. In this sense, we can consider that Master
Shigeru Egami's karate as the result of the fusion of Okinawa's karate and the
practice concepts of the Japanese Martial Arts. Karate, introduced to the main
islands of Japan during the 1920's developed progressively. We must therefore
accept that in the course of this karate diffusion, it evolved in Japan, fusing
itself with the two ideas of the traditional Japanese Martial Arts. Master Shigeru
Egami's karate is an example of this.